Farago said it might never happen, but it did: Tata's bought Land Rover and Jaguar. Bloomberg says the announcement will come tomorrow morning, perhaps even before the NYSE opens for the day. Tata has purchased Land Rover and Jaguar for $2.65 billion, or about the cost of dinner for four people at a pub in London. As we've said all along, the best English high tea in the world isn't served in England; it's in Hong Kong and India. So 150 years after flooding China with so much opium that the Chinese government started two wars with England to get it to stop, Chinese businesses bought what remained of Rover. Now the Indians are having their turn, as Indian industrial giant Tata (recently in the news for selling the cheapest new automobile in the world), have completed the deal to buy the former crown jewels of the British automotive manufacturing industry, Jaguar and Land Rover. Ford purchased Jaguar in 1990 for $2.5 billion and Land Rover in 2000 for $2.73 billion, making this a multi-billion dollar loss even if they hadn't been operating the companies for a total of 25 business years. Here's to hoping for a brighter future for these storied companies.

I imagine that just killed US sales of Jaguar. Rover will no longer be held in high regard by those who did. It will be equivalent to Russian built SUV’s for example. Jaguar will be like those high end cars that are built in China. Highly desirable in the states?

Who owns something and where it is built has a lot to do with it when something is considered a luxury item.

If China bought Lamborghini for instance, they wouldn’t be held in the same light they are now.

If Porsches and Ferraris were owned by and built in India or Cuba or Somalia..

Somehow it makes items like that not be so exotic and highly coveted anymore. Could still full well be the same cars, but have some how lost their luster.

Some might not like those words, but it’s the truth. A bumper sticker once read something to the extent of “the truth might not always be popular, but it’s fact.” Can’t argue with the truth(what would be the point?). The facts still remain the same. That’s like trying to argue with math.

If for example UFO’s were indeed real, innocent ignorance would argue they were not, when indeed they were real. Because some one says something to be true, if it is or isn’t; well. If it is, it is I guess(that whole proof thing). Maybe no point in arguing. Let the facts speak for themselves. Still though, are UFO’s real? They might be and you might indeed say no even if one was inches in front of your face! What one wants to believe may attempt to override ones reality. A form of unwillingness I suppose. Willful ignorance? You want to believe they aren’t real right?

I guess Jaguars and Rovers will sell well in India though. Jaguar was fairly high regarded in the 1970’s and 1980’s. Once Ford bought them though, it was just another Ford. The worst offender was the S-Type when it first came out. I don’t remember the other two model cars(Contour and something else on the same platform), but at the time, if you parked all three side by side, and stripped off all the identifying items, you’d be hard pressed to identify which car was which. Essentially just three Fords. That’s a sad excuse(and an insult) for a Jaguar! I always liked the XJ’s though.

This seems like peanuts compared to the recent talk about Microsoft’s $44.6 Billion takeover of Yahoo.

Seriously that is quite sad that Yahoo is worth more than Jag and Rover. Oh well quite a few changes in the lineup with Jag and Rover thats for sure. The beautiful part about it is that most american’s wont have a clue anyways expect the auto enthusiast. I cant wait to the the new Range Rover Nano’s hit the block. How about the new Jaguar work truck? With a 1.1 4-cylinder? Maybe i will finally be able to own a jag? Seriously I wonder what those rich (and not-so-rich) Jaguar owners will do when they want to trade it in for another Jag? Maybe go to the Hyundai and test drive the “Infindai” Genesis…

“If China bought Lamborghini for instance, they wouldn’t be held in the same light they are now.

If Porsches and Ferraris were owned by and built in India or Cuba or Somalia..”

In response to this quote from “rtz”, nothing can be further than the truth.
In todays world, a good product sells, irrespective of who sits at the board or who owns the company.
If Tata is able to maintain (though that will not be adequate) and improve (highly desirable) upon the product line and the quality of the cars, there is no reason why it would not sell.
I just booked a Pontiac G8 for my teenage daughter, it it did not bother me once that it was built in Oz by Holden. its just a fine car and it had all that she wanted.
Guess that is what the end buyer considers at the end.
If the owner’s profile was that important Hyundai should have had frozen sales (remember its chairman fiasco).

The amount of foreign money invested in premium brands such as the ones you now lament the passing off into foreign hands kind of makes your point strange. At any rate, Jaguar was owned by Ford – and look at how well that turned out.

Economic power is shifting. Fortunately, England did get a cricket test win last night.
http://sport.guardian.co.uk/englandinnewzealand2008/story/0,,2268118,00.html

I imagine that just killed US sales of Jaguar. Rover will no longer be held in high regard by those who did. It will be equivalent to Russian built SUV’s for example. Jaguar will be like those high end cars that are built in China. Highly desirable in the states?

Jaguar had US sales? Oh. :-) What I see as the challenge for Jagata is weaning itself from the FoMoCo parts bin. That is going to take some serious bucks, I expect.

As for Land Rover, this could be a godsend for LR. With the SUV market finally tanking and the posers getting out of the market, the time is ripe for the introduction of a honest, de-pimped 4×4. With rubber mats, water proof seats, basic 4×4, et. al. In short, what Africa, India and most of Australia need as a 4×4. Tata could make that happen. There would even, I expect, be a US market. Sure, it would compete with jeep, but who cares. Toyota abandoned that market with their tarted up 60k+ Land Cruiser (and, no, the FJ Cruiser doesn’t reclaim that market). The Debt3 have long abandoned that market, prefering Eddie Bauer Exploders, Escayukahoes, and HEMI ™ Durangoes.

The biggest fly in the ointment I see is fuel economy regulations killing a “simple” 4×4, and I don’t see any 50 state legal diesel development at Tata.

If Tata can improve the reliability of Jaguar and build strong Land Rovers there won’t be a problem achieving sales.
There was doom-mongering when Ford bought Aston Martin and Audi bought Lamborghini – destroying the marque, taking it down market – but few would argue that it has.

“I imagine that just killed US sales of Jaguar. Rover will no longer be held in high regard by those who did. It will be equivalent to Russian built SUV’s for example. Jaguar will be like those high end cars that are built in China. Highly desirable in the states?”

Just a couple of pedantic but actually quite important points. Firstly Rover do not build SUVs, Land Rover do. This is important because the Rover brand (of cars) is a bit of a wild card in this and could actually be the key to the whole thing. One would have to presume at this stage that the Rover name was included in the deal (Ford bought it from BMW a couple of years ago for $50mil or so). This would give Tata a well known volume brand with a relatively good if somewhat conservative image. It certainly has a better cache than Tata.

My second point is that Land Rover have been built in many countries in the past, including India and are due to start operations again soon in the sub-continent. Thirdly Land-Rover and Tata were competitors for Indian Army business for a new range of vehicles, so thus there is already an huge order just ready for the picking now.

I just wonder how much “damage” this sale will do to the “prestige” of these two brands? I have a friend that has owned Jags for yrs. And when he found out about this sale he said: “I just bought my last Jag. This sale will ruin both marques”.